How video conferencing helps Permira, a leading private equity firm, stay ahead of the game.

There are some things that live up to expectations, the birth of a child; a holiday maybe; and then there are those that don't. We've all fallen for it, stuff that just doesn't do what it says on the tin, like diet pills, obvious toupees, or anti wrinkle cream! Consider video conferencing, which has in the past suffered a lacklustre reputation as a boardroom luxury, and never really met expectations. Yet things are changing fast, technological advances are allowing video conferencing solutions to become powerful business tools that boost an organisation's ability to respond to market forces.

Specific developments, like high-definition, are driving major improvements in audio and visual quality. The latest video conferencing systems operate across both IP and ISDN, they are no longer difficult to manage or use and the new infrastructure solutions are reliable, interoperable and scalable. Reduced cost-of-ownership and technological advancements are making video communications available to the boardroom, the desktop and even the phone.

Indeed, the underlying infrastructure technology has advanced so much that video conferencing is, for the first-time, a cost-effective way to empower virtual teams and individuals, while managing the knowledge and information assets of an organisation. This certainly is the case for Permira, a leading private equity firm, which has over 100 investment professionals working out of 10 offices around Europe, the US and Japan. Permira has a reputation for providing creative and timely solutions to vendors. It has a partnership culture and works closely with management teams to create value by combining extensive geographic coverage with deep vertical sector knowledge. It's here, at Permira, that video conferencing has moved out of the Stone Age, to become a fully paid up member of its mainstream IT communications strategy. "For many years video conferencing has played a niche part of business communications, it never performed to expected levels, but this is changing - it has too - because knowledge transfer is crucial to business success," said Carolyn Lees, IT director, Permira.

As a private equity firm, Permira's ability to turn information into a tangible asset cannot be underestimated; the timely sharing of market intelligence is necessary for its ongoing revenue growth. Moreover, Permira's business communications are complicated by a need to collaborate with a diverse range of external business partners and professionals, as well as with its own internationally based teams. So, the use of video conferencing has always been seen as a useful tool to aid collaborative communications. Yet, just like other organizations, its successful use of this technology has been full of twists and turns.

Permira first introduced a video conferencing system in 2002 when, from the start there were seemingly insurmountable problems for multi-site calls; "Some of our video conferences are six hours long, the first systems Permira used just couldn't deliver against our need for quality audio and image. Also these original systems were difficult to use and far too complex to configure and manage. If we had one technical or network hiccup, at one site, then the whole conference was affected," said Carolyn Lees.

Permira's experience of video conferencing will not be an isolated case. Traditional video conferencing systems suffer inherent problems with delivering a consistent service to multi-location conferences. This is because all participants are forced to join at the same speed and resolution, with the poorest, setting the standard for all participants. Generally, these systems only offer single pane voice activated switching which means that 'he or she who speaks loudest' is the person that appears on all participant screens. This limitation delivers a less than satisfying meeting experience, which is why there is a move towards systems that offer Continuous Presence for all participants. This allows everyone to be seen, all of the time, usually in a variety of layouts, determined by the individual. With Continuous Presence, it is also possible to have voice activation to place the current speaker on to the centre panel of a screen. It is also this feature, which offers participants a greater feeling of real-life involvement, allowing for body language and reactions to be seen in totality, just as if they were all sat round a single table. Of course, near real-life interaction is the ultimate aim for video conferencing and Telepresence solutions alike.

Another key limitation for users of traditional multipoint systems is that they are not usually endpoint agnostic, and so there can be interoperability difficulties from the start. Not good if you need to communicate with other business partners and customers. To prevent such difficulties it has always been a default that endpoints and infrastructure typically come from the same manufacturer. Up until now, this has been the most practical user environment, avoiding the hassle of integrating disparate systems. All in all, it is no wonder that video conferencing never quite did what it said on the tin; the products available to Permira in 2002 just could not achieve anything like a visually satisfying interaction let alone a competent audio one! Despite poor quality experiences, however, video conferencing remained a vital communications tool within Permira.

Carolyn Lees joined Permira in 2005; "The first objectives were for me to tackle the overall reliability issues and to ensure good quality audio. Even if you have a poor picture, people can still interact, but if you lose sound then the conference is rendered useless. We set about improving the reliability of the system by addressing some complicated network settings. In terms of the audio improvement, we introduced, what were relatively cheap, new endpoints that produced better audio. The combination of network settings and better audio output delivered an acceptable improvement in our video conferencing system capability. Having done this, at least we could stop sweating every time we started a video conference. However, there was still ample scope for improvements."

After audio, Permira's next step was to address the poor image quality. "Fortunately, Codian had just appeared on the scene and was hailed as the must-have piece of kit for video conferencing - we evaluated Codian's MCU [multipoint control unit], which it was claimed would solve all of our quality [voice and image] and technical issues."

Following its evaluation, Permira purchased the Codian MCU 4200 Series, which offers a unique video stream for each participant. This single feature, of the Codian MCU, meant that Permira could provide each of its participants with the best possible audio and video quality, for available bandwidth and endpoint capabilities. "Codian dynamically allocated the best resource it could to all endpoints, so sites were not communicating at the lowest common standard. This dynamic handling, also lowered the overall cost-of-ownership; no more complicated template configurations were necessary.

"Codian was impressive from the beginning, we had it out of the box and up and running in 15 minutes flat. It has an easy interface, so it is quite straightforward to set-up a conference and manage calls. Clearly, being able to isolate and solve an individual network or endpoint problem is a huge advantage, it meant that for the first time, any individual breaks in service, could be solved without impacting the other participants," Carolyn Lees.

Video conferencing was and remains a top priority for Permira, making it work to an acceptable standard was the first key objective. However, with an eye always cast towards improvements, it wasn't long before Permira decided to look at high-definition video conferencing, which became available in late 2006. "The Codian MCU 4200, with its inherent interoperability brought about significant improvements in reliability and overall endpoint quality. But then, Codian launched its HD [high-definition] MCU, which together with competitively priced LifeSize's HD endpoints, took the market by storm. This was a real opportunity for us to make dramatic progress, bringing us as close to face-to-face communications as we could, without hopping on a plane. It was an easy decision for us to upgrade from SD to HD and replace our existing endpoints with LifeSize."

The Codian MCU 4500, Carolyn Lees refers to, is hailed as the only true high-definition voice and video bridge. It supports the highest video resolution, speed, frame rate and codec of the latest HD endpoints. This includes full Continuous Presence for all conferences, including those with a mix of both HD and SD [standard definition]. Always mindful of existing infrastructure and market developments, Codian has ensured that its MCU will scale up to match future capabilities of forthcoming HD endpoints and that it seamlessly integrates with existing SD equipment as well as with other devices such as 3G, SIP and desktop video. Such clear investment protection makes it all the more compelling for companies such as Permira.

"Having now completed the transition from SD to HD with Codian, we have a video conferencing experience that is more lifelike than we ever imagined possible. The take-up of video conferencing throughout Permira is on the increase and is now an accepted part of our day-to-day operations. We have regular, weekly scheduled meetings with our teams throughout the world and user acceptance gains momentum with each conference. The interoperability of the Codian allows us to cater for external partners to join meetings, as and when necessary - plus there are rarely any technical hitches - allowing our customers and partners to experience a superior service too," concluded Carolyn Lees.

Some things will never live up to expectations, today this cannot be said of the latest systems for video conferencing. These can now deliver a visual experience that is almost as good as being there. What's more the new generation of solutions are reliable, easy-to-use and manage, offering a broad range of options for connectivity over IP from a multitude of devices, making video conferencing an affordable business must-have rather than a boardroom luxury.